Night of Neglect
by DreaC
Summary: Just to be heard is all Mercedes Jones ever wanted, and Night of Neglect was her night, or so she thought.


**A/N: Most of the dialogue comes straight from the Night of Neglect episode. The only added parts are Mercedes and Sam. Also the bold lyrics in the song are for emphasis. This was just an idea that developed as I was re-watching Night of Neglect. Hope you enjoy**

**Disclaimer: I don't own glee.**

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><p><strong>Night of Neglect – One Shot<strong>

**Mercy's POV**

It was just another day in glee club, and I happened to look up at the board to see Mr. Schue writing out a math equation. Instantly, I knew this would be a hot mess waiting to happen, and as soon as he said the words "salt water taffy" my assumptions were confirmed. Did this man honestly think we were capable of selling all that taffy? What made him think people wouldn't laugh in our faces or worst slushie us for even attempting to step to them with some lame sales pitch. Hell to the no was on the tip of my tongue as everyone else was giving disapproving comments as well, but Mike Chang brought our attention to their even lesser appreciated academic decathlon team, The Brainiacs. I was all for supporting my friends, but all Mike's speech brought on was Mr. Schue raising our goal of taffy sales. It was safe to say glee club that day was unproductive and useless.

When we were dismissed, I found myself walking out with Sam. Now, the two of us weren't really close. In all honesty, we weren't close at all. We've shared the occasional conversation in Glee Club, and even those can get a bit awkward sometimes. The awkwardness was mainly my doing because I was crazy crushing on that dorky Bieber wanna be – had been since I'd laid eyes on him. I'd watched him from afar and found out so many things about him. Just in Glee Club, I'd hear him doing impressions and I'd laugh quietly while whoever his flavor of the week was chastised him for being a dork. There were so many times that I'd hear him speaking Na'vi and I'd want to answer him. My brother and I were completely Avatar nerds, and decided to learn the language. It excited me that Sam knew it, but the dorky side of me was hidden away. None of my friends knew about my sci-fi obsession, and at the mention of Avatar Kurt's face scrunches in disgust. The other thing I noticed about Mr. Evans was that there wasn't even a turnaround time for him being single. The end of his relationship with Quinn seemed to overlap with the beginning of his relationship with Santana. His choice in girls also gave me the knowledge I needed to realize that I was not, nor would I ever be his type. So liking him from a far, and snatching conversations where I could, would be my only hope with Sam Evans.

"Mr. Schue isn't the brightest crayon in the box, is he?" Sam asked as we both walked toward the lockers. His locker was two down from mine, and I couldn't help but laugh at his question.

"He's obviously lost his ever loving mind, thinking that people are going to buy some taffy."

"He could've said candy bars and wouldn't have gotten as much grief," Sam suggested. "Who can't resist some chocolate?" He gave a mix of a smile and a smirk and my heart sped up.

I looked away, grabbing a few books out of my locker. I wished his last statement had a double meaning, but I knew it hadn't. Sticking to the subject, I scoffed, "Taffy, really?"

Sam chuckled as he stuffed some books into his backpack. "Trouty, I don't have all day!" Santana called from the exit.

He sighed and said, "Bye, Mercedes. See ya tomorrow."

"Bye," I said lamely.

The majority of our conversations went just like that – short and sweet. I was okay with that. Being in even less than a friend zone with Sam kept my mind in reality, and reality screamed that the sexy blond was off limits and out of my reach.

The next day, Mr. Schuester had a new and improved fundraising idea, and this one was a hell of a lot better than taffy. He called it Night of Neglect and said we would only be doing songs by neglected artists. I was cool with that, but when Rachel Berry opened her annoying mouth to say she was a neglected artist, I wanted to slap her silly. If anyone in the club was neglected, it was me. Always passed up, never heard, good for only belting out that last note no one else could reach. That was me, useful only when they saw fit. I was used to it by now and had even come to accept that I would only sway in the background, but Night of Neglect was a night I would get to shine. I wouldn't have to sway to Rachel's tired Broadway rendition of God only knows what. All eyes would be on me center stage in the spotlight.

After being dismissed, we were all throwing around ideas of what we would like to perform. Tina said she would be doing something by Lykke Li, and Mike would finally get his time to shine as a one man dancing machine. As soon as Mr. Schue announced this new fundraiser, I knew what artist I would be singing a song by.

"You're forgetting about the most neglected artist this glee club has ever seen, Aretha Franklin," I explained.

"Neglected? She's like the queen of soul!" Lauren countered.

"I auditioned for this club singing _Respect_ and she's got none since, so I'm doing Aretha."

To my unpleasant surprise, Rachel just had to put her two cents in. "Awesome, Mercedes. Awesome all of you guys. Those songs are great appetizers to my main course, Celine Dion's _My Heart Will Go On_. It's going to be our finale."

_That bitch! Always assuming she can have the glory spot. I am so fucking tired of this club being the Rachel Berry show._ _It's high time I speak up._

"I was kind of hoping I could do the closing number." There I'd said it, and it wiped the smug look right off of her face. Before she could argue with me about it, Finn came up with Sunshine Corazon drama.

Don't get me wrong, the girl could blow and if her followers could help us raise more money, I was all for her singing with us until Bitchel said, "Fine. Mercedes, you're okay with being bumped to the decidedly less glamorous middle spot, right?"

_Hell to the no I am not!_ Yet, cowardly, I said, "Um…sure…I guess." _No, Cede, they are waiting on a one hundred percent certain answer. Just say no! But they're all looking at me expectantly. If I say no now, they'll blame me for not raising enough money. _"Absolutely," I mumbled defeated.

It was useless anyway. Rachel always got her way no matter what. She had Schue and everyone else practically eating out of her damn oversized man hands. One can only fight so long with no victory in sight before giving up completely.

Grabbing my bag, I left the choir room and headed for the library. It was there that I saw the light. The errors of my ways had been pointed out to me by none other than Lauren Zizes. She showed me that I wasn't getting respect, because I didn't even respect myself enough to fight for what I want. I was too nice to those damn New Directions kids. Asking them for respect day in and day out, but now I would just demand it. The diva that had been hibernating was now reawakened thanks to my new manager Ms. Zizes, and all I could say was good luck New Directions the divatude is on.

That night, I puzzled my brain for the perfect song to sing to shut Rachel up once and for all, and to show everyone I deserve to shine as well. Before I could think too much about it, my phone buzzed. Picking it up to read the text I'd gotten, I frowned at the name I saw there. It was Sam, who had never texted me before.

**Hey, Mercedes! It's Sam. Got ur num frm Mike. Hpe u dnt mind?**The text read.

I was lying to myself if I said I wasn't ecstatic to be texting him, though I was even more curious as to what the reason brought his text on.

**It's cool. What's up?**

**Did u get the Spanish hw? 4got to write it dwn :S**

My heart sank after reading that. Of course he would be needing something. Why else would he be texting me? I sure wasn't just on his mind and he'd go out of his way to talk to me.

**Just finish the vocab we strted in class.**

**Gotcha. Thx. U kno what sng ur doing at NON?**

Okay. I was expecting a conversation ender, but he's apparently feeling chatty. Maybe he doesn't want it to seem like that was the only reason he sent me a message.

**Did you just mke up an acronym 4 the fundraiser? HORRIBLE! Not sure yet. I hve a few ideas in mind.**

**They asked MC White Chocolate to be the host ;)**

I hadn't heard any of the details of the even yet, so this had me confused. I was frowning and also wondering why there was a winky face at the end of that text. Surely he didn't mean who I thought he meant.

**Who?**I asked simply.

**Me! **

I laughed so hard that I cried before replying. This boy did not just refer to himself as White Chocolate!

**Lol. Boy please! White Chocolate?**

**I'm awesome, and u kno it!**

Without thinking about it,I typed, **Nga unil ha!** I'd sent the message before I could second guess myself. After all, this week was about taking chances and showing people who the real Mercedes Jones was, why not start now?

A few minutes had passed and I hadn't received a reply. I was getting a little worried that I'd scared him away, which would make him a total hypocrite from the way he walks around speaking Na'vi. Before I could send him another message, my phone rang, and my heart stopped beating for just a second as Sam's name flashed across the screen.

Eagerly pressing send, I answered, "He…hello?"

"Did you just do what I think you did?" He sounded awed and amazed. I could just picture him wide-eyed with childlike fascination on his face.

"It depends on what you think I did."

"Mercedes…did you just speak Na'vi and not only speak it, but insult me?"

"Yeah. Me and my brother learned it. We speak it to each other all the time."

"You're fucking with me, right?"

"I shit you not. I know Na'vi, Sam," I replied, amused by his disbelief.

After that, we spent a better part of the night speaking to each other in Avatar's fictional language. I can't remember the last time I smiled or laughed so much. Sam is a nut with all his horrible jokes and impressions, but I had a few of my own too. He told me he laughed so hard his abs would be sore in the morning.

When I looked at the clock, I realized that we had been on the phone for over four hours and it was almost midnight. Neither of us had done our homework yet. I was reluctant to say goodbye, but finally I managed it. He got the last word in.

"Hivahaw nimwey," he told me before I hung up.

Never in my life had the words "pleasant dreams" sounded so sexy, but Sam Evans speaking Na'vi directly to me had been hot beyond compare. Just the sheer way the words flowed easily in an almost musical intonation. All I could think was _wow_ when I hung up. I was practically walking on air, and I knew what song I would sing now and I owed it all to Sam.

The next day, I was dressed to kill, my hair was on point, and my divatude was in place. I was ready for any curve balls they would throw at me today and not accept anything less than the best. When the so called "benefit heads", Finn and Quinn, came to me, Lauren and I had my demands ready. Most of them were so ridiculous that we would laugh our asses off if they actually went through with getting them. When they asked if there was anything I needed, I said, "I need a bowl of green M&Ms and by bowl, I mean large bowl…really a small barrel. I need humidifiers, lots of humidifiers, a team of humidifiers whose only job is to make the air Mercedes breathes more humid!"

Both of them seemed utterly shocked to hear me making demands. Quinn gave a pitiful, "We'll try our best."

I held up a finger to let her know I wasn't done. "Before every performance, I like to wash my hands. And after doing so, I like to dry them…on a fresh puppy." It was so hard to contain my laughter, but they seemed to respect Berry when she went all diva on them. She got every solo just because she practically demanded it, so I justified this as my turn to get all that was due and finally be heard- even if it was ridiculous.

"Excuse me?" Finn asked as if he'd heard me wrong.

"I believe you heard Miss Jones. In fact if I were you, I'd get a whole litter of fluffy puppies just in case she decides to take a post-show shower," Lauren suggested.

When they finally were out of earshot, Lauren and I died laughing. It was so ridiculous not even we could take it seriously. Surprisingly enough, my demands for green M&Ms and a team of humidifiers had been answered and I found out that they had Puckerman searching the pounds for me a puppy. After finally feeling like they heard me – too bad I had to say outrageous things for them to listen - Rachel tells me Sunshine is taking my closing spot, and I have to go on before the both of them.

Before I could say anything, Lauren spoke for me with yet another silly demand. "Fine, but Miss Jones isn't happy about it, and in exchange, she's demanding that during the day of the benefit, her feet never touch the ground."

I almost cracked up at that one, but I knew where she was coming from. So many divas before me had been carried into performances, and if I couldn't have the best for last factor, why not go for the spectacular entrance and performance factor?

"Excuse me?" Rachel asked, uncomprehending.

"Oh did you not see Celine's wedding?" Lauren asked.

"Carried in," I explained.

"Cher's come back tour."

"Carried in."

"Gaga at the Grammy's."

"Carried the _hell_ in."

A frazzled Rachel attempted to put the pieces together. "I'm sorry. Are you saying that you want to be carried in, in a giant egg?"

Lauren and I conferred before she said, "We'll get back to you on that."

I smiled. We were not making this easy on the talent management director or whatever Rachel was calling herself. She hadn't made Glee Club easy on me, so why would I bother making this easy for her? I was enjoying seeing her squirm, doing whatever I asked for a change.

Disaster struck on the night of the show. Sunshine Corazon pulled out of the benefit, leaving only six people in the audience, and at least four of those six were only there to make our lives hell by heckling us until we cracked. There was no way in hell I was going to step foot on that stage. By the time Tina's performance was done, I was sitting in my car. My diva façade had cracked and all of my insecurities came floating back to me. Resting my head against the steering wheel, tears began to fall. _Was I really not as good as Rachel Berry? Were there reasons I never got picked for solos when most of the group had? Was Mr. Schue ashamed to put the curvy girl in the spotlight? Why didn't any of my so called friends fight with me to get my turn to shine? Did they not believe in me either? _ I felt betrayed, unloved, unwanted, and invisible. The tears came faster, searing me with shame as they slid down my cheeks. Every thought slashed deeper and deeper, nearly shattering my self confidence, downgrading my self worth.

A knock on my window startled me and when I looked up it was Sam. "Mercedes, let me in it's raining."

I hit the unlock button and he slid in. He was drenched with his hair sticking to his forehead and his shirt clinging to his body. It was a mighty fine sight that I was in no mood to admire. I wiped the tears away as he said, "Everyone's been looking for you."

"I'm not going back in. My demands weren't met," I quickly put some pieces of the diva back together.

"Cut the act. This isn't you."

"How do you know who I am?" I sassed.

Sam just took it in stride and smiled. "I may be pretty, but I ain't dumb. I have eyes and ears. Just because we didn't talk much doesn't mean I don't see the way you treat people and interact with them."

I was quiet for a second before I asked the question that had been nagging me for weeks. "Am I not as good as Rachel?"

He turned around in his seat to face me. "You're better if only because of the simple fact that you won't stomp all over people to get what you want. You put yourself last. You have to give to get. Mercedes, you give some much and so far you haven't reaped the benefits, but your day is coming. It may not be in the form of a solo, but you'll get everything you deserve.

"When I was new to Glee Club, I assumed you got every solo. The first time I heard you sing, I was blown away. You're not second best. They just don't know how to handle you."

Sam grabbed the hand that was resting in my lap and squeezed it, willing me to believe him. "Thanks, Sam."

"Now are you coming or am I going to have to drag you out?" He smiled, and it seemed contagious.

I nodded, giving him a smile in return. Pulling out my umbrella, I hopped out of the car. Sam and I argued over who should hold the umbrella because him crouching down so far was too funny. I finally gave in, letting him hold it, but I threatened to kill him if he let my weave get wet. Once we were inside, he looked at me and his lips twitched.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"A puppy, Mercedes?"

"You should have seen the look on Finn's face! It was worth it!" I laughed, and he joined in.

When we got to the choir room, we heard the others asking Lauren if she could do anything to get me back. As I walked in, Finn made a sarcastic remark about one of my demands and I rolled my eyes.

"I do have only one more demand." I watched as Finn gave me the WTF look, Sam raised an eyebrow, and others sighed. "I demand that all of you get your butts out there and watch me sing." Cheers erupted all around as they got up to go to the auditorium.

I took off my coat and noticed Sam lingering still. "I thought you were supposed to be the MC?"

His cheeks flushed and he bit his lip before saying, "I believe you requested to be carried in?"

"I was just joking about that."

He held open his arms, walking closer to me. "Well, I wasn't, so…" Sam didn't say another word. He scooped me up bridal style and carried me to the backstage of the auditorium. I was surprised that he showed now strain and didn't drop me. All those muscles weren't just for show. He was strong.

My feet finally touched the stage once were standing behind the microphone. The curtains were still closed and I was glad. This moment got to be just mine and his. I would cherish it forever. "Knock 'em dead, okay?" Sam pulled me into a hug and I felt overloaded by the feel of Sam, carrying me, hugging me. It was all surreal.

As he was walking away, I decided to take one more diva moment of confidence. "Sam, pay attention to the words."

He nodded before disappearing in front of the curtains. "And now, ladies and gentleman, Miss Mercedes Jones," Sam introduced.

The music began to play and the curtain slid open. I located Sam immediately, sitting beside Santana. Taking a deep breath, I prepared to pour my heart out, singing only to him.

_Ain't no way for me to love you,  
>if you won't let me.<br>I know that a woman's duty is to help and love a man,  
>and that's the way it was planned.<em>

_Oh, it ain't no way (ain't no way).  
>It ain't no way (ain't no way).<br>It just ain't no way, baby (ain't no way).  
>Ain't no way baby (ain't no way).<br>It ain't no way for me to love you,  
>if you won't let me.<em>

_**Stop trying to be someone you're not.  
>And if you need me to love you, say, say you do.<br>Oh, then baby, baby, baby don't you know that  
><strong>_

_**I need you**__.  
>Oh, Oh, it ain't no way.<br>I'll tell you that it ain't no way,  
>It ain't no way.<br>It ain't no way, baby, no.  
>It just ain't no way.<br>It sure ain't no way  
>It ain't no way for me to love you,<br>if you won't let me_

Watching my friends give me a standing ovation was so satisfying it almost brought me to tears. I found Rachel waiting just off the stage behind the curtains. "Alright, girl, time for the closing number. Go bring the house down."

"Are you kidding me? Nobody can follow that. The house has been brought down. That was the closing number," she told me.

At a loss for words, I just hugged her. I had just been given my "best for last" moment while also laying out my feelings for Sam._ Oh God…Sam…_ I thought as I heard him announcing the end of the show. I stuck around backstage for a while, hoping that by the time I actually went to my car everyone would be gone, but I was wrong. Sam was waiting for me by my locker.

"Hey," I said for lack of anything better.

"Hey," he replied. An awkward silence fell between us for a few seconds before he started talking. "So that Sandy guy is going to pay for the Brainiacs' trip."

"Oh that's great. I bet they are all excited."

"He said it was because of your song that he couldn't be a hater like Sue had hoped."

"Wow," was all I could manage as my heart raced. I could practically feel it in my throat.

"You might think you aren't heard, but when you sing, people sit a little straighter and listen. I heard you tonight."

I didn't know how to respond to that so I just stayed silent.

"Santana isn't nice," he seemed to blurt out.

I laughed. "Really? What was your first clue?"

Sam smiled. "I broke it off with her, but I'm not ready to be in another relationship just yet. What do you say we just see where our friendship takes us?"

"I like the sound of that."

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed it! I'd love to hear your thoughts. <strong>

**Also I had to put in the name White Chocolate somewhere, because my mouth fell open :0 at the previews of Sam stripping and they introduced him as White Chocolate! Episode 8 isn't coming fast enough! And I'm lovin' him singing Red Solo Cup! **

**Nga unil ha – you dream so**

**The song is Ain't no way by Aretha Franklin**


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